Steve Cropper, the lean, soulful guitarist and songwriter who helped anchor the celebrated Memphis backing band Booker T. and the M.G.’s at Stax Information and co-wrote the classics “Green Onions,” “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” and “In the Midnight Hour,” has died. He was 84.
A reason behind loss of life was not instantly recognized. Longtime affiliate Eddie Gore instructed The Related Press he was with Cropper on Tuesday at a rehabilitation facility in Nashville, the place Cropper had been after a latest fall. Cropper had been engaged on new music when Gore visited, he stated.
“He’s such a good human,” Gore stated. “We were blessed to have him, for sure.”
Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame inductee Steve Cropper, founding member of Booker T. & the MG’s and the Blues Brothers Band, performs onstage at The Rose on Sept. 28, 2018, in Pasadena, California.
Scott Dudelson / Getty Photographs
“Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched the lives of millions worldwide,” Cropper’s household stated in a press release launched by means of the muse, describing his “influence on American music is immeasurable.”
“Every note he played, every song he wrote, and every artist he inspired ensure that his spirit and artistry will continue to move people for generations to come,” the household wrote.
The guitarist, songwriter and file producer was not recognized for flashy enjoying, however his spare, catchy licks and strong rhythm chops helped outline Memphis soul music. At a time when it was widespread for White musicians to co-opt the work of Black artists and make more cash from their songs, Cropper was that uncommon White artist keen to maintain a decrease profile and collaborate.
Cropper was celebrated, revered by fellow guitarists
Cropper’s very title was immortalized within the 1967 smash “Soul Man,” recorded by Sam & Dave. Halfway, singer Sam Moore calls out “Play it, Steve!” as Cropper pulls off a good, ringing riff, a slide sound that Cropper used a Zippo lighter to create. The change was reenacted within the late Nineteen Seventies when Cropper joined the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act “The Blues Brothers” and performed on their hit cowl of “Soul Man.”
In a 2020 interview with AP, Cropper mentioned his profession and the way he mastered the artwork of filling gaps with a vital lick or two.
“I listen to the other musicians and the singer,” Cropper stated. “I’m not listening to just me. I make sure I’m sounding OK before we start the session. Once we’ve presented the song, then I listen to the song and the way they interpret it. And I play around all that stuff. That’s what I do. That’s my style.”
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, requested as soon as about Cropper, stated merely, “Perfect, man.” On a YouTube educational video, guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa says Cropper’s strikes are sometimes copied.
“If you haven’t heard the name Steve Cropper, you’ve heard him in song,” Bonamassa stated.
Steve Cropper attends the ELVIS Act Press Convention – Shield Tennessee Music, at RCA Studio A on Jan. 10, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. The proposed invoice to replace the state’s Safety of Private Rights legislation, goals to guard artists and music business professionals towards the unethical use of synthetic intelligence.
Jason Kempin / Getty Photographs
Cropper was born close to Dora, Missouri, however moved along with his household to Memphis when he was 9 and bought his first mail-order guitar at age 14, in response to his web site, playitsteve.com. Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed and Chet Atkins had been amongst his early influences.
Cropper was a Stax artist earlier than the label was even known as Stax, which Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton had based as Satellite tv for pc Information in 1957. Within the early Sixties, Satellite tv for pc signed up Cropper and his instrumental band the Royals Spades. The band quickly modified its title to the Mar-Keys and had successful with “Last Night.”
Satellite tv for pc was later renamed Stax, the place a few of the Mar-Keys turned the label’s horn part whereas Cropper and different Mar-Keys fashioned Booker T. and the M.G.’s. That includes Cropper, keyboard participant Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson, they had been recognized for his or her hit instrumentals “Green Onions,” “Hang ‘Em High” and “Time Is Tight,” and backed Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and others.
Cropper co-wrote “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” weeks earlier than Redding’s loss of life
In a 2017 interview with “CBS Mornings,” Cropper recounted enjoying guitar behind Redding on the Monterey Pop Competition in a legendary 1967 efficiency that helped put Redding on the map.
“We had no idea what the reaction was gonna be. And it was unbelievable,” Cropper instructed “CBS Mornings.”
In late November of 1967, Cropper stated Redding introduced him a tune the now-legendary singer had began writing on a houseboat overlooking San Francisco Bay that might turn out to be “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”
“That afternoon, it was done,” Cropper instructed “CBS Mornings.” “We went and cut it the next day. I think there’s three takes of it.”
A couple of weeks later, on Dec. 10, 1967, Redding died in a small airplane crash close to Madison, Wisconsin, on the age of 26.
“And I said, ‘I just lost my best friend,’” Cropper instructed “CBS Mornings.”
Cropper returned to the studio to place the ending touches on the tune, and “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” launched in January 1968, turned the primary posthumous No. 1 file on the Billboard charts. It gained Redding and Cropper the Grammy for Finest R&B tune, with Redding additionally successful Finest Male R&B Vocal Efficiency.
Booker T. and the M.G.’s. broke boundaries
Booker T. and the M.G.’s. was a racially built-in band, a rarity in its day. It was so admired that even non-Stax artists recorded with them, notably Wilson Pickett. Jones, who’s the one surviving member of the band, and Jackson are Black. Dunn and Cropper are white.
“When you walked in the door at Stax, there was absolutely no color,” Cropper stated within the AP interview. “We were all there for the same reason — to get a hit record.”
Within the mid-Sixties, Atlantic Information govt Jerry Wexler introduced Pickett to work with the Stax musicians. Throughout a 2015 gathering with the Nationwide Music Publishers Affiliation, Cropper acknowledged he had by no means heard of Pickett earlier than working with him. He discovered some gospel recordings by Pickett, was taken by the road “I’ll see my Jesus in the midnight hour” and with a slight change helped write a secular normal.
“The man up there has been forgiving me for this ever since!” he stated.
Cropper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame in 1992 as a member of Booker T. and the M.G.’s. That yr, Cropper, Dunn and Jones performed in an all-star tribute at Madison Sq. Backyard to Bob Dylan. Al Jackson died in 1975, Dunn in 2012.
Rolling Stone journal ranked Cropper thirty ninth on its 100 Biggest Guitarists listing, calling him “the secret ingredient in some of the greatest rock and soul songs.”
Cropper was within the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers” and its follow-up, “Blues Brothers 2000,” portraying “The Colonel” within the Blues Brothers band. In actual life, he toured with them.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2005, and two years later obtained a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
Cropper continued recording into his later years, together with 2024’s “Friendlytown,” which was nominated for a Grammy. Earlier this yr, Cropper obtained the Tennessee Governor’s Arts Award, the state’s highest honor within the arts.
He’s survived by his spouse and 4 kids.
Extra from CBS Information
